


Regular or Woolly Hat

by imsfire



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Thor is mentioned but not present at the moment, two of anything is better than one right?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-27
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-23 12:51:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6116980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imsfire/pseuds/imsfire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane and Thor are living happily in London and Jane is teaching at University College.  But then an unexpected visitor with a serious medical problem turns up, seeking her help...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Regular or Woolly Hat

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Maybug](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Maybug).



> A follow-up of sorts to "When wil he be able to go home?"

She’s on the train to UCL when it happens. Her car engine has begun coughing asthmatically of late and she’s given in and taken it to the garage, and since it’s a Thursday Thor is using the other car today, to visit his brother in the hospital out in Caterham. So public transport is her only option for now, if she’s going to get to class on time.  
Since she’s the professor, getting to class late is not an option.  
It’s a wet day, all the windows steamed up and streaming. Jane gets on at West Norwood, when the train is usually full, but today she’s in luck and gets a seat. She drops her bag at her feet and smears the condensation on the glass with her sleeve, and sits looking out at the morning city passing by. Traffic splashing in the streets below, crowds at each station with hoods and umbrellas up, huge puddles, the rain teaming down steadily. She grins at it all. It’s impossible not to grin; all those people look so down because of the weather, yet her day, like all her days now, is happy; and she’s seen so much worse in London than a little rain.  
Her neighbour gets up and leaves at Clapham Junction, and although there are people standing along the carriage, no-one takes the seat. Jane spares it a glance and goes back to the window, and her thoughts. Today’s lecture is the first of the three on wormholes; it’s the central section of the course, the core content, framed before and after with sessions on the more digestible elements of general cosmology. She’s excited to be at this stage; thanks to world events, the students are primed for this part, aware of reality in a way no previous cohort has ever been. They will want to know more, they will have questions. And she has answers for them.  
“Is this seat taken?” says a woman’s voice softly beside her. The sound is oddly familiar, and Jane looks up.  
And stares, the planned words of her lecture vanishing from her mind, light as airborne dust.  
“Oh my God,” she says. “Are you ME?”  
****  
“Ew, bummer,” says Darcy, looking at the screen. The results are even more meaningless than she’d feared. She’s just going to have to accept it; this is what happens when someone sneezes on your equipment mid-scan. The first twenty-five minutes of data are normal but it all goes to total gibberish from the moment of aspiration onward.  
She can’t use the first half of the data, since without the full context it’s statistically meaningless. She pouts at it and turns away at the sound of footsteps. Jane’s lecture must have finished on time, which is unusual; and awkward, since she hasn’t had time to prepare a not-embarrassing explanation for the sneezed-on lenses yet. The truth will have to do. Bummer.  
She looks up, saying “Hi, how’d it go?” in as studiedly casual a voice as she can muster; then “Whoa, hey, what the – who the - huh?”  
Jane is looking brisk and businesslike as usual, and a little pale. Beside her, Jane is as white as a sheet and about ten times thinner than normal. And wearing a deeply hideous orange woolly hat with flaps, pulled right down over her ears.  
“Darcy,” says Jane number one; Regular Jane. “Meet me.”  
Darcy shakes the hand Woolly Hat Jane holds out. She can’t think what else to do, since both Janes are acting as if this is all only slightly abnormal. Which, hell, it kind-of is, after the last couple of years, but still; two Janes is new.  
It’s a very bony hand, though her boss’s grip is as confident as ever. Dammit, Woolly Hat Jane looks downright frail. This isn’t good.  
“Did you lose your eyebrows somewhere?” she asks, and kicks herself inwardly for letting her mouth do the talking before her brain has done the thinking. This really is so not good.  
“In a manner of speaking,” says Jane.  
“I love the ‘Firefly’ hat, that is so cool, I mean, you’re making a pun on your name, right?” Oh God, now she’s really embarrassing herself.  
The two Janes exchange a glance, and Regular Jane says wryly “Well, you know Darcy already, I guess. So you know she’s trustworthy. Even if she isn’t giving the best exhibition of that right this moment.”  
Woolly Hat Jane – Firefly Jane? – Jayne Cobb Jane? - She’s going to have to find some way of distinguishing them to herself if this goes on – Woolly Hat Jane grins and raises her hand, and pulls off the hat.  
Oh. My. God. She’s -  
“I need your help,” says Bald Jane. “I need to find Thor.”  
“That’s her Thor, by the way, not mine,” says Regular Jane. “Which is a shame, since I know exactly where he is.”  
“So this is some more of that kind of mega-universe trans-dimensional space-time stuff?” says Darcy. “Oh boy. I love my job!”


End file.
